Don't Be Such a Scientist: new thoughts on Randy Olson's work

Randy Olson is a man with a mission.  A professor of marine biology who fell in love with Hollywood, he has been making films since 1990.

Olson’s 1999 film,  Talking Science, is a straightforward and entertaining guide to delivering effective presentations at science conferences.  The material is helpful but not especially unusual - although the tips it offers will be useful to anyone who has to present to their peers at a specialist event.

 

The audience at a conference is what Olson describes as 'pre-aroused'.  They are ready for complicated information; they need little to entertain them; they will be suspicious if you try to be nice to them. 

Any other kind of audience is not 'pre-aroused'.  Visitors to a museum, viewers of a film of aTV interview, or readers of an article in a newspaper require a different approach. 

Olson became fascinated with the question why science was failing to win over the general public, especially when it came to big questions like health, genetic modification or climate change .  In his 2006 film Flock of Dodos, Olson asks why evolutionary biologists are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of Americans to the proponents of creationism or intelligent design.

Flock of Dodos turns out to be a staging post on Olson's journey to a manifesto for better science communication.  In 2009, Olson published Don’t Be Such A Scientist.  This book – which by his own admission could just as well be called Don’t Be Such An Expert – presents his five-part framework for improving the way scientists communicate with the public.  And his ideas will be valuable for specialists and professionals of all kinds - not just scientists.

Olson is now taking the journey one stage further.  He has set up a website, The Benshi, as what he calls 'a sort of sequel or addendum' to his book.  It's already proving valuable. (Go to the site to find out what a Benshi is.)

Olson's book offers a five-point programme of behavioural techniques. Some of them challenge the received wisdom of science communication, promoted by organisations such as the Union of Concerned Scientists. The book is discursive, anecdotal and entertaining.

I have been thinking about Olson's five strategies, and trying them out with scientists in one of the greatest museums in the world.  I like them.  I have begun to develop my own variation on them, which links Olson's ideas to my own and sometimes plays variations on them. So, with thanks to Randy for all his work and courage in confronting some elements of the scientific establishment, I offer my 'take' and some of my own thoughts.

Olson's approach revolves around five key instructions.

 

1.  Don't be so cerebral.

2.  Don't be so literal-minded.

3.  Don't be such a poor storyteller.

4.  Don't be so unlikeable.

5.  Be the voice of science.

 

I would love to make these headline instructions positive rather than negative.  How about these?

 

1.  Appeal to more than the head.

2.  Be more imaginative.

3.  Tell stories.

4.  Be more likeable.

5.  Develop your own voice.

 

 In future postings, I shall develop my thoughts on each of these ideas.